Silencer and flow regulator particularly for water conduits

ABSTRACT

A silencer for water conduits comprising a hose-like elastic body having a diameter smaller than the passage cross section for the medium to be silenced, one end of said body closing said passage in stream direction to achieve substantially non-flowing water around said body and flow through the same.

lei-233 lea-1002 Hammarstedt SILENCER AND FLOW REGULATOR PARTICULARLY FOR WATER CONDUITS [30] Foreign Application Priority Data [521 US. Cl 181/33 S; 181/36 B; 181/41; 138/26; 138/37 [51] Int. Cl. E04b 1/99 [58] Field of Search 181/35 R, 35 C, 35 B, 36 R. 181/41. 43; 239/533, 534. 575, 587; 138/26, 37

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1.251.956 1/1918 Bletcher 181/33 S 1.342,978 6/1920 Young 181/41 1.972.065 8/1934 Noblitt... 181/35 C 2,238,146 4/1941 Yavitch 181/33 S 2,258,469 10/1941 Podolski 181/33 S 4 42 Sept. 11. 1972 Germany 7233494 1 1 Sept. 30, 1975 2.405.241 8/1946 Smith 181/33 S 2.548.965 4/1951 Gaugler 181/35 C 2.588.555 3/1952 Molloy 181/33 S 2.712.831 7/1955 Dat 138/26 2.785.016 3/1957 Vollertzen et a1. 239/575 2,799.533 7/1957 Bachli et a1. 181/35 C 2,875.789 3/1959 Wright 181/33 S 2,885,123 5/1959 Turpin v 181/33 S 3,165,123 1/1965 Hawkins 181/36 B FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 3/1934 United Kingdom 181/35 A 1946 France 181/33 S Primary E.\'ar'niner-Joseph W. Hartary Assistant Examiner-Vit N. Miska Attorney. Agent, or Firm-Robert E. Burns; Emmanuel .I. Lobato; Bruce L. Adams [57] ABSTRACT A silencer for water conduits comprising a hose-like elastic body having a diameter smaller than the passage cross section for the medium to be silenced, one end of said body closing said passage in stream direction to achieve substantially non-flowing water around said body and flow through the same.

15 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures US. atent Sept. 30,1975

1 I SILENCER AND FLOW REGuLATon PARTICULARLY FOR'WATER coNn'uiTs noise productionin": this area, because the-roaring in .1 water conduits almost exclusively is produced" by the.

tap valves. i 1 .1 I

This problem'hadu so' far, not beensolved. in a; satis-, factory manner. Y v .2

It is, therefore theroject of the invention'toeliminate the aforesaid deficiencies and to produce.a:silencer,-.

which in. the field; mentioned is advantageous-in the most different respects...

This object .isachieved' by the'invention, in that a si.

lencer of which provides an elastic tubulanbody in sertedin the conduit, adjacent a valye so thatthe water. from the valve, flows through the elastic. body and th at substantiallystandingwater surrounds the elastic body;

this body being-preferably supported against crosssectional compression by a spring or the like, inserted in it. I Such a device, in addition ,to its silencing capability, has also a flow-restricting automatic effect, i .e. itadjusts itself to the pressure prevailing in the main. In this' lence declines in this area. The bushing is provided with internal axial ribs 7, between which said end of spring end is'pushed in and so locked by friction, that a continuous annular space between spring=and hose renders g the passage of water possible, while the parts 2, 3, 4,.5

and 7 advantageouslyinterlock each other.

"The silencer according to-t he' invention operates'as follows: all water, which can be tapped from the valve V, must-pass through the hose 2. The water flows ahead partially through the spring and'partially through said annular space between the s'pringand the hose. The outside of the hose is surrounded by standing water, In a fitting F, integral with the socket 11,-and in a'sectio'n C of the conduit for'the flow'of 'wate'r, downstream of When water is being tapped from the conduit, thus, flowing wateris within the hose andstanding'water outside of the hose. I-Iereby a pressure differenceiis produced which compresses the hose from its outsideJThis difference increase with rising pressure in the main M, wh ereto 'the 'valve and the silencer are connected and thereby brings about the aforementioned highly advan-' way, the silencer renders a substantially constant flow, I

independently of pressure variations in the main. This constitutes a highly important function and a great advantage, because the water is divided more equally between the different taps in an installation.

Further features and advantages of the invention become apparent from the following descriptive part and accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. I shows by way of example an installation plan of a silencer according to the invention,

FIG. 2 shows a diametrical longitudingal section through a part of a silencer according to the invention, and

FIG. 3 shows the same silencer seen from the left in FIG. 2.

Into a metal nipple l with external threads at opposite ends 5 and 6 thereof (at right and left, respectively, in FIG. 2), the ends of an elastic hose 2 of plastics or rubber and of a tightly wound helical spring 3 of corrosion-resistant material are inserted at one end 5 and secured by means of a bushing 4 of, for example, plastics. In a practical embodiment, the spring and hose may have a length of about 750 mm, but are not bound in any way to a definite length. As appears from FIG. 1, the nipple end 5, which is the right-hand end in FIG. 2, is intended to be inserted into a main socket 5', and the nipple end 6, which is the left-hand end in FIG. 2, is intended to be connected to a tap, or valve V, it being possible also to provide an intermediate piece or a connection conduit (not shown) between this nipple end6 and the tap or valve.

As appears from FIG. 2, the bushing 4 in a diametrical longitudinal section has the approximate shape of a T. An end portion of hose 2 is pushed onto the por tion 9 of the bushing 4 with reduced diameter, and this portion together with the end portion of the hose is pressed into the nipple ends. The portion 10 of bushing 4 with greater diameter and/or the inside 8 of nipple end 6 may advantageously be widened internally toward the end wall thereof, so that the water turbuing pressure, whereby 'thesile'ncer in effect also acts asa'flowregulator.

I The object of the helical spring is to prevent the hose from being compressed too much, both at larger pressure differences and when the" silencer is being mounted, because in the lastmentioned case the hose may have to be led through, for example, right-angled pipe elbows F.

The silencing effect is achieved substantially in that the pressure energy of the water is throttled on a relatively long distance at laminar flow, this main effect being brought about by the characterizing features of the invention. The silencer according to the invention is substantially self-cleaning, owing to the elasticity of its elements 2 and 3.

It was found by experiments, that the silencer according to the invention shows excellent values with respect to its noise and flow dampening effect over installations without a silencer.

The embodiments described above and shown in the drawing are to be regarded merely as non-restrictory examples, which can be modified at option within the scope of the idea of the invention and, respectively, the following claims. Instead of a helical spring, for example, a perforated or unperforated tubular body of, for example, flexible plastics may be used, or a body built up of several hoses or passages. This body possibly may be much shorter in length. One of these passages or one of these hoses may sealingly include another medium, for example air, which would increase the shockabsorbing effect of the silencer. In order to prevent, for sanitary reasons, water from completely standing still about the hose, the hose may be provided with small apertures 11 close to the nipple I. This would scarcely affect the effect of the invention.

What is claimed is:

I. A silencing and flow regulating device for flowing liquid and particularly for flowing water, said device comprising; a deformable and elastic tube insertable to I extend in a conduit section for flowing liquid, said tube stantially all of the liquid flows along one of said surfaces and that the other surface is exposed to substantially standing liquid, applying pressure energy of the liquid to transversely deform saidelastic'tube.

2. A device according to claim 1 including means extending along at least a substantial portion of one of said surfaces for limiting the transverse deformation of said elastic tube.

3. A device according to claim 1 wherein said tube substantially consists of rubber.

4. A device according to claim 1 wherein said tube substantially consists of elastic plastic material.

5. A device according to claim 1 wherein said tube has small apertures interconnecting said inner and outer surfaces thereof adjacent said end of said tube adjacent said anchoring means.

6. A device according to claim 2 in which said deformation limiting means comprises a helical spring.

7. A device according to claim 6 wherein said spring is disposed in said tube.

8. A device according to claim 6 in which said spring is substantially coextensive with said tube.

9. A device according to claim 7 in which said anchoring means include a bushing having an outer surface anchoring said inner surface of said end of said tube, said bushing having means for supporting an outer end portion of said spring.

10. A device according to claim 8 wherein said spring comprises coils closely adjacent one another.

11. A device according to claim 9 in which said anchoring means include a nipple having an internal portion clamping said end of said tube onto said bushing, said nipple having other portions connectable to the conduit.

I 12. A device according to claim 11 wherein said nipple has an internal end portion, opposite the one clamping said tube, which is widened from adjacent said bushing toward the valve.

13. A device according to claim 12 wherein said bushing has an internal, widened end portion continuous with the widened portion of said nipple.

14. In combination: a conduit section for passing liquid and particularly water therethrough: and a silencing and flow regulating device comprising, a deformable and elastic tube extending in said conduit section, having inner and outer surfaces, the outer surface having a diameter smaller than the internal diameter of said conduit section, and means for anchoring one end of said tube in said conduit section positioned so that substantially all of the liquid flows through said tube and that said outer surface is exposed to substantially standing liquid, applying pressure energy of the liquid to compress said elastic tube inwardly.

15. A combination according to claim 14 including a valve communicating with said conduit section and 

1. A silencing and flow regulating device for flowing liquid and particularly for flowing water, said device comprising; a deformable and elastic tube insertable to extend in a conduit section for flowing liquid, said tube having inner and outer surfaces, the outer surfaces having a diameter smaller than the internal diameter of the conduit section; and means for anchoring one end of said tube in the conduit section positioned sO that substantially all of the liquid flows along one of said surfaces and that the other surface is exposed to substantially standing liquid, applying pressure energy of the liquid to transversely deform said elastic tube.
 2. A device according to claim 1 including means extending along at least a substantial portion of one of said surfaces for limiting the transverse deformation of said elastic tube.
 3. A device according to claim 1 wherein said tube substantially consists of rubber.
 4. A device according to claim 1 wherein said tube substantially consists of elastic plastic material.
 5. A device according to claim 1 wherein said tube has small apertures interconnecting said inner and outer surfaces thereof adjacent said end of said tube adjacent said anchoring means.
 6. A device according to claim 2 in which said deformation limiting means comprises a helical spring.
 7. A device according to claim 6 wherein said spring is disposed in said tube.
 8. A device according to claim 6 in which said spring is substantially coextensive with said tube.
 9. A device according to claim 7 in which said anchoring means include a bushing having an outer surface anchoring said inner surface of said end of said tube, said bushing having means for supporting an outer end portion of said spring.
 10. A device according to claim 8 wherein said spring comprises coils closely adjacent one another.
 11. A device according to claim 9 in which said anchoring means include a nipple having an internal portion clamping said end of said tube onto said bushing, said nipple having other portions connectable to the conduit.
 12. A device according to claim 11 wherein said nipple has an internal end portion, opposite the one clamping said tube, which is widened from adjacent said bushing toward the valve.
 13. A device according to claim 12 wherein said bushing has an internal, widened end portion continuous with the widened portion of said nipple.
 14. In combination: a conduit section for passing liquid and particularly water therethrough: and a silencing and flow regulating device comprising, a deformable and elastic tube extending in said conduit section, having inner and outer surfaces, the outer surface having a diameter smaller than the internal diameter of said conduit section, and means for anchoring one end of said tube in said conduit section positioned so that substantially all of the liquid flows through said tube and that said outer surface is exposed to substantially standing liquid, applying pressure energy of the liquid to compress said elastic tube inwardly.
 15. A combination according to claim 14 including a valve communicating with said conduit section and tube. 